The new Laguna LT16HD part 2

[Leon]

I did not even get to touch the saw until this afternoon. I spent the morning rat killing and picking up a power cord to attach to the saw. After attaching the 10-3 cord I started the saw up for the first time with out a blade attached as I wanted to make sure all the safety switches worked properly. Yup, it starts up OK. This saw has a start switch that you turn

1/4" turn and the motor starts. If you hit the red kill switch, step on the break, or open the top and bottom doors the switch automatically turns in the opposite direction 1/4" turn and turns the saw off. The next step was to put a 1/2" blade on and check tracking and set the guides. Boring! The blade immediately tracked to the center of both wheels and no tracking adjustment was necessary. Cool. With the Rikon I some times had to help that adjustment out with a pop of my palm on the lower end of the top wheel. Adjusting the 10 point ceramic guides was straight forward and non eventful. Cool. I manually rotated the top wheel several times to insure that the weld was not going to be a problem with respect to the ceramic guides and immediately noticed that the top wheel did not feel like it was going to grind a blister on my finger like the old Craftsman and Rikon did. Cool. Time to power up with the blade mounted. The instructions indicate to start for a split second and turn the machine off when using a new blade to again insure that every thing is OK. This is easily done by turning the start switch 1/8" turn and letting go. It springs back to off automatically. Kinda like turning the key to start the starter on a car. Every thing seemed OK. I started the saw again and left it running and noticed a loud squeal and then it went away after the blade came up to speed. I immediately tightened the drive belt a bit more and the squeal was gone. The saw is very quiet with just the common tapping noise that the blade makes as the weld goes through the guides. Checking the fence and table alignment to the blade, I found both were dead on. Test cuts with that 1/2" blade through 3/4" oak were pretty darn smooth considering this was 1 of 3, "throw in with the deal", blades. I will be anxious to see how the Laguna Resaw King does on veneers. Next a relatively narrow resawing test. I had a piece of 7/8" thick oak 2.5" wide by 28" long. After adjusting the fence for blade drift I started cutting 1/16" thick slabs off of that 7/8" thick piece of wood. I probably would not have to sand before gluing to a substrate as the surface was similar to the back side of Formica maybe a touch rougher. The resawing and guiding was effortless and the pieces were consistent in thickness from end to end and top to bottom. I got 8 pieces. Is that good? :~) Wider pieces tomorrow.

[Bob]

I am sorry your new band saw is so boring. Is that what you get when you pay a premium price. :-) We look forward to hearing parts 3 and 4 of the story. Of course, I want to come by for an eye witness report after you are slicing veneers.

Bob

[Leon]

I'll let you know when the veneers start stacking up. About 2 weeks ago my wife dreamed that she came home from work and when she opened the garage door she saw me standing in side a pile of veneers stacked to the ceiling.

[Lee Michaels]

"Leon" wrote

Your wife has dreams about WOOD?

That one is a keeper.

[nailshooter41]

Are you SUUURRE that wasn't you squealing with delight at your new saw? It sure sounds like something that would warrant a good squeal. I do that almost anytime I get a tool that works great anymore.

[Leon]

No, I usually do not squeal. I usually ummm...

I'll do that.

So far all I can add is that the mchine purchase was like moving up from a bench top TS to a Cabinet Saw. Probably a bigger move than the one when I replaced my Craftsman contractors TS with my Jet cabinet saw . Rock solid. Expensive, but no compromises.

I will say also that the rubber tires apear to be 2 to 3 thimes thicker than the ones on the MiniMax. The Laguna tires are a good 1/4" thick.

[Enoch Root]

Looks like right now they are 1.50/in. for a 1" blade...

But I cannot find a link to the lt16 or lt16hd on their site: it's either the 14" or 18".

er

[charlie b]

When you get to cuttinkg one sided slices . . .

While I found the ceramic guides better than the euro guides (two bearings on the sides of the blade, one behind if), the lower guide is a PITA to adjust, at least on my early model guides - nice show price when they first came out). Would be nice to have a horizontal guide to keep the side blocks from rotating as you tighten their set screw.

The dust collection also could use some improvements, though still better than JET/Delta. It's amazing how much saw dust ends up in the lower cabinet.

If you're going to get a Resaw King blade you must be figuring on doing a LOT of veneer making - the price of one will buy a LOT of "normal" blades. 130 inch blade x $2 an inch? I definitely wouldn't try slicing up any mini-logs with one - one nail, piece of wire or an included pebble and the carbide tips would be toast.

A good bandsaw, or even a mediocre bandsaw with the right sharp blade, can do some amazing things that no other tool/machine will do. And for ripping, it's a hell of a lot safer than a table saw.

I didn't really think I needed a bandsaw when I was setting up shop. But when LT offered an LT16SEC (the 2 1/4 hp model) for $1100 delivery to my shop floor included, I couldn't pass up the deal. Now it gets used for all sorts of things.

Enjoy the saw - you'll wonder how you got along without it. Now you can do bombay chests, cabriolet legs . . .

charlie b

[Swingman]

psssst ... wanna buy a used Delta 14"??

;)

[Leon]

OK, Swingman you gotta, "Sell IT", if you wanna sell it.. It has been souped up with a highly polished chrome tension adjustment wheel that feels like fine jewelry. Additionally it has been modified with a High Performance tension spring that delivers professional quality pressure that is second to none. LOL.

[Leon]

Yeah the lower guides are a little more trouble however the Laguna now has thumb screws instead of hex screws for the thrust and side guides, top and bottom. Unfortunately the lower thrust thumb screw is a bit tough with half of a left thumb missing. ;~)

So far the dust is blown out from under the lower door and very little dust stays in side. I was kinda suprised at how little compared to the Rikon. I guess the bigger openings help with air flow when using a dust collector.

A Resaw King came with the deal. The Resaw King 150", 3 throw in blades, Mobility kit and delivery with lift gate and placed in my garage was $300 more than regular price for the saw alone. Basically, for $40 over the shipped price I got all the blades and the mobility kit. Normally the saw would have cost about $500 more than what I paid. FIY the Resaw King is now $1.50 per inch in any width and can be resharpened for about $44 shipped back to me. The Resaw King for my saw, 150", priced out at $225 and last month they were on sale for 20% off.

Nooo. I will reserve the good stuff and exotics for the Resaw King.

I can see that.

Yeah it seems that the prices have really gone up in the past 2 or 3 years. Its hard to pass up a good deal.

Amazingly I have done cabriolet legs on my old 12" Craftsman and they came out great.

[Leon]

IIRC $1.50 for any width.

LT16

[Swingman]

You left off the ceramic guides, the wheel brush, and the link belt ...

I am starting to think a Laguna 20" might be what it's gonna take to live in the same town with you!

[Leon]

Oh yeah I for got about those improvements. I was only thinking of the new ones that I saw last week. The new belt was hidden in the cabinet. :~)

Maybe. I can't say if it would be a great improvement over your Delta but I certainly see a difference over what I had.

[nailshooter41]

Hey Swingman... I'm with you. All I have is a 12" Sears with Carter guides and a Taiwanese 14" for other stuff. When I need something bigger cut, I have a buddy with a 16" Jet and one with an old 18" Jet. When Leon gets that all sorted out and set up, I don't know how easy it will be to be around him.

Of course, if I had that saw, I would be the picture of humility.

Yeah, right.

I would probably paint it red and drive around with it in the back of my truck.

Robert

[Enoch Root]

heh. thanks.

er

[Peter Huebner]

Probably not. You'd paint it red, try to lift it on to the back of your truck and spend the next couple of weeks in bed with a busted back :-P

-Peter ...who wrestled his 18" Jet off the back of a low slung trailer and into the workshop by hisself - the damn thing weighs twice as much as I do. Let's just say I've been seeing my chiropractor a few times, lately.

[Swingman]

You're right ... I guess the next best thing to having one is having a friend with one ... right Leon, old buddy?

All kidding aside, my Delta suffices for my needs at the moment and is pretty well tuned up to do what I want it to do. If I find myself needing to spend some Section 17 $$ before the end of the year, there's always the Leigh FMT, or the JDS multi-router ... either one of which should justify some trade-off time with the owners of these high dollar band saws. ;)

[Leon]

Boy had I known you coulda had my 12 Craftsman too. LOL

[Leon]

Any time sir, just gimme a call.

Good idea. No reason to buy one if one is available. ;~) Had I bought your Delta when you did I would probably not have this Laguna.